MANILA (2nd UPDATE) - Government troops on Saturday clashed with Abu Sayyaf rebels in Patikul, Sulu as it launched an operation to hunt down one bandit leader tagged in the twin blasts that killed 22 and hurt at least 100 others in Jolo town last week.

Five soldiers and three from the enemy side, including one foreign terrorist, were killed in the firefight that went on for nearly two hours, said Lt. Col. Gerald Monfort, spokesperson of Joint Task Force Sulu.

Five other soldiers were wounded while 10 from the Abu Sayyaf were hurt, including leader Indang Susukan, who reportedly lost an arm.

The "intense firefight" between the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion and at least 100 Abu Sayyaf members under a certain Hajan Sawadjaan erupted in Barangay Kabbon Takas shortly before noon, military officials told reporters.

Sawadjaan is an Abu Sayyaf leader believed to be involved in the bombings at the Jolo Cathedral during a mass on January 27. He was known to have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

Residents of Patikul were evacuated amid the firefight. Authorities stepped up checkpoints in other parts of Sulu, with troops on the lookout for the possible entry of supplies, particularly food, for the bandit group.

The encounter happened amid investigation surrounding the possible involvement of Indonesian suicide bombers aided by the Abu Sayyaf group in twin blasts.

MANILA - Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday said the “gangster-like antics” of President Rodrigo Duterte do not seem to scare terrorists, as she raised doubts on the capability of the tough-talking chief executive to protect the country and its citizens.

In a dispatch from her detention cell in Camp Crame, De Lima, one of Duterte’s most ardent critics, said the President’s threats seem to be “nothing but empty words to real terrorists" following the spate of bombings in Mindanao.

“If, indeed, it was the terrorists who did the bombings, it also proves one thing: That the gangster-like antics of Duterte cannot protect the people against terrorists and neither can he scare them away to curb their agenda. The first was Marawi, now Jolo and Zamboanga,” De Lima said.

“His threats are nothing but empty words to real terrorists. To put it bluntly, he is mighty in words, but inept in action. What are our intelligence assets doing, or where are the funds to run the intelligence gathering?”

She added that the bombings took place even as the entire Mindanao is under martial law.

De Lima also raised doubts on the President and the military’s claim that the bombing of a Catholic church in Jolo, Sulu was the handiwork of foreign suicide bombers, as she called for an independent investigation into the bloodbath that left 22 people dead.

“There is something more to this than meets the eye as bereaved families raise doubts on the suicide bomber theory of the government and no less than the City Mayor of Jolo is calling for an independent investigation for fear of cover-up and whitewash. They are from the area and understand the place; their doubts must be valid,” she said.

The senator said the President seemed to have made a “hasty pronouncement” that suicide bombers were behind the attack “without waiting for the results of official investigation and validation from experts.”

“His statements achieve nothing but add more confusion and fear among the people. It is highly irresponsible, especially coming from the top official of the land,” she said.

She said Duterte’s latest claim forms part of a pattern wherein he makes “premature and specious statements often in too serious a situation.”

“He did this in the case of the seized magnetic lifters in Cavite which, based on PDEA’s investigation, were used to smuggle billions worth of shabu. At first, Duterte dismissed the agency’s initial findings as ‘pure speculation,’” she said.

“In these bombings in Mindanao, is he again misleading the public and selling us the wrong story?”

De Lima also slammed the perpetrators in the terror attacks.

“That the culprits attacked more than the symbolism of the place than the faithful who happened to be there makes the act extremely vicious. They assailed peace, targeted particularly no one, but sowed fear to everyone. To what end?” she said.

Responding to De Lima’s criticism of the President, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the lawmaker was “talking nonsense” and “has dulled her senses.”

“De Lima is blaming the intelligence community and questioning how the intelligence fund was being spent,” Panelo said in a statement.

“The fact that the soldiers were not able to detect the terrorists who disguised themselves as churchgoers is no reason for this criminally accused legislator to be so insensitive as to blame them for the tragedy.”

He also dismissed De Lima’s claim that the President cannot protect the public, saying “this is the same President who crushed the dreaded and ruthless ISIS and their local counterparts in the Marawi siege.”

“This is also the same President who has declared a war on drugs, criminality and corruption and gained headway in all those fronts by his swift action and enforcement of the law, without fear or favor.”

Panelo also defended the President’s decision to place Mindanao under martial law, saying not doing would put the region “in chaos with bombings and killings a daily occurrence.”

CAMP SIONGCO, MAGUINDANAO – A suspicious man on a motorbike had avoided a military checkpoint along the national highway and left his explosives-rigged motorbike by the roadside to explode, a military spokesperson said.

Maj. Arvin John Encinas, the spokesperson of the 6th ID, said soldiers were conducting checkpoints along the national highway in Maguindanao on Tuesday when a suspected bomber took a U-turn and left his motorbike, by a roadside in Sitio Nes Talayan at past noon on Tuesday.

Minutes after the man left, it exploded, Encinas said.

He said the man was heading to Datu Odin Sinsuat, also in Maguindanao, at past noon.

But upon seeing soldiers inspecting the “U-box” of motorcycles, the man stopped and turned around.

“He was speeding but seeing soldiers checking all motorbikes carefully, he took a U-turn and left his motorbike beside the highway,” Encinas told the Inquirer.

Encinas said Army bomb experts confirmed the motorbike was rigged with an improvised explosive device. It could have been triggered by a mobile phone.

The bombing attempt could be in retaliation to the military offensive against IS linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), Encinas believed.

Eight BIFF members were killed during air strikes in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao on Saturday./lzb/ac

MANILA, Philippines — An Abu Sayyaf member believed to have planned the bombing of the Jolo cathedral and led the suicide bombers to their target has surrendered along with four others reportedly after intense pressure from police and military manhunt operations.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said yesterday Kammah Pae or Kamah surrendered to Army troops on Saturday, followed by his four companions later on the same day and on Sunday. Kamah is a member of the Abu Sayyaf’s sub-group Ajang-Ajang.

The other four are Albaji Gadjali, his sons Kaisar and Rajan, and Salit Alih.

Albayalde said relentless police operations left Kamah and the others with no option but to turn themselves to authorities. Details of the surrender were not yet available.

“He was forced to surrender,” Albayalde told a media briefing. “He probably didn’t want to die during the military offensive.”

Security forces killed three suspected Abu Sayyaf militants and suffered five fatalities in a firefight on Saturday in Patikul town in Sulu as troops pursued those behind the church attack.

Albayalde said Kammah denied involvement in the twin bombings at the Jolo cathedral that killed 23 people, including civilians and soldiers, but eyewitnesses’ accounts showed he escorted the Indonesian couple.

Security forces also retrieved an improvised explosive device (IED) and components from his home, Albayalde added.

Even with the arrest of Kammah and the others, the investigation into the cathedral bombing is “far from over,” he added.

Abu Sayyaf is a militant organization notorious for kidnappings and other acts of terror. It has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

“There are more pieces of evidence that need to carefully examined,” Albayalde said.

Before President Duterte suggested on Tuesday that the twin explosions may have been a suicide attack, military and police said the bombs within and outside the church appeared to have been detonated remotely.

A few days later, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said an Indonesian couple carried out the suicide attack with the help of the Abu Sayyaf.

That would be in line with a claim of responsibility by IS via its Amaq news agency.

Criminal charges

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac said 23 counts of murder and 95 counts of multiple frustrated murder and damage to property have been filed against Kamah, Gadjali father and sons, and Alih before the Sulu provincial prosecutor’s office in Jolo.

“The five suspects belong to a group of 22 Abu Sayyaf personalities led by Hatib Hajad Sawadjaan that are believed responsible and conspired for the terrorist attack,” Albayalde said at a press conference at Camp Crame.

Fourteen more suspects, including Sawadjaan, remain at large. At least four of those at large were identified as Makrim Habbisi, Barak Ingug, an alias Usman, and a certain Arab Puti.

Police earlier tagged Kamah as the one responsible for the explosions at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral on Jan. 27 that killed 23 people and wounded 95 others.

The latest fatality was Oscar Asares, 60, who died of his injuries last Saturday at the Zamboanga City Medical Center.

A raid on Kamah’s house resulted in the recovery of an improvised explosive device and bomb components.

Senior Superintendent Edgar Monsalve, PNP Intelligence Group chief, said Kamah had been with the Abu Sayyaf since his teenage days, working under the tutelage of Sawadjaan.

The police official said Kamah was reportedly Sawadjaan’s most trusted aide and liaison to other lawless groups.

Albayalde said one of the suspects’ motives is to spark a conflict between Muslims and Christians.

“It has nothing to do with the BOL (Bangsamoro Organic Law). It’s a plan of act of terror,” he said.

By engaging in more terror acts, the group hopes to gain further notoriety and get funding support from the Middle East-based Islamic State, Albayalde said.

“They do this terror act to get funds from ISIS,” Albayalde said.

He also said the cathedral bombing was in retaliation to the military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf.

Bombers’ escort

A reconstruction of the events prior to the bombing indicated that Kamah had escorted two Indonesians around Sulu.

The unidentified couple, based on intelligence reports gathered by the police, arrived in Sulu on Jan. 21 on a pump boat from Lampinigan Island in Isabela City, Basilan.

The couple alighted in Sitio Bastiong in Barangay Langhub, Patikul where Kamah and Barak escorted them to Sawadjaan’s forest hideout. The man had been in the country for a year while the woman just arrived a few days before the explosions.

The terror group had been planning the cathedral bombing for about a year, according to authorities.

Intelligence information also revealed the group’s plan to fabricate an IED on Jan. 8 and get IED components from a warehouse in Jolo. The plan was abandoned for unknown reasons. Sawadjaan would later give the group funds for the cathedral bombing mission.

On Jan. 26 or a day before the bombings, the couple were spotted at around 5 p.m. in Barangay Latih, Patikul with nine other members of the group on a jeepney, and carrying black trolley bags. They disembarked in front of Suleco building in Jolo and were not seen for the rest of the day. – Michael Punongbayan, Cecille Suerte Felipe

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